Cyberbullying the Amanda Knox way

Regardless of which side of the fence one stands on the Meredith Kercher murder case as far as the guilt or innocence of Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, the venomous vitriol unceasingly spewed by Knox supporters towards Meredith Kercher’s family is revolting. It doesn’t help that the murder suspect herself endorses this sentiment on her own blog.

Perusing thousands of comments on various news website commentaries, one may view the below sample of the attacks inflicted directly upon the victim’s family. All of the comments below were written by supporters of Amanda Knox.

Holliwood: I believe Knox is innocent. But the call for blood vengeance by Meredith’s family makes me hope that Amanda and Raffaele did do this, that they throw it back into the Kercher’s faces and laugh at the Italian courts, and that the Kercher’s and head prosecutor go stark raving mad in response.

Mary: “It is absolutely incredible that the Kercher family is not up in arms over Guede’s [third person held responsible for murder] being eligible for work release at this time.”

ProfessorAlbee: “[I]f there is rock-solid evidence that the Kerchers had colluded with the italian authorities in the ‘judicial railroading’ of both Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, then the Kerchers should be held liable in the aiding and abbetting along with the [I]talian authorities. Hopefully, the families of both Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito should ‘liquidate’ the living daylights out of the Kerchers. The Kerchers should have absolutely no right in profiting from the ‘judicial railroading’ of both Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito.”

frobert: “If the evidence is not presented at the public trial, the judges do not see it. The Kercher family attempted to force a private trial, but the Italian court ruled that the trial be public.”

jrpppp: “It’s sad the the writer here is identified only as “staff writer”. What lapse in character or intellect prevents such writers, bloggers, and commenters from recognizing the scientific impossibility that anyone but Rudy Guede killed Ms Kercher, as no trace of anyone else was found in the room where she was killed?

The Kerchers have joined purpose with the very people most directly responsible for their terrible loss; Rudy Guede – their daughter’s killer – rapist, and the Italian prosecutor and judges – whose failure to apprehend Guede allowed him to escalate his crimes to that murder & rape.

Amanda Knox and Rafaele Sollecito are factually innocent, have been proven to be innocent before an unbiased Italian court. Further pursuit of these two innocent people is cruel, depraved, and says more about the motives and character of the prosecution and judges, then it ever could about Ms Knox and Mr Sollecito.

When will these crazy lunatics leave these two gentle innocent people alone? There needs to be a new class of criminal offense that specifically addresses the unrelenting internet stalking that has surrounded this case. Letting criminals get away with their crimes only encourages more of the same. They crave criminality, and require social constraint and reprobation.”

“Paul, is speaking the truth of what the Kerchers have done your idea of harassing them?

After the acquittal was overturned, John Sr said “We have only ever wanted the truth and fair justice.”

Arline said “I’m glad someone is looking at it. Hopefully we will get somewhere with it.”

Stephanie said “There are a lot of unanswered questions still… We are not happy about going back to court, and it will not bring her back, but we have to make sure we have done all we can for her… We just want justice for Mez.”

What this tells me is the Kerchers are convinced of Amanda and Raffaele’s guilt and to them justice is putting them in prison. Nothing else will do.

After the Hellmann ruling, brother Lyle said “If the two released yesterday were not the guilty parties, we are obviously left to wonder who is the other guilty person or people. We are left back at square one”

Lyle has obviously been convinced that there were multiple assailants despite the testimony of six expert witnesses who stated the wounds were not inconsistent with a single attacker. I can only assume he is incapable of accepting there was only one attacker, despite nothing that proves otherwise.

As a family, their reactions, both after the Hellmann and Cassation rulings, show me they were not interested in justice through the legal system but rather, they want the legal system to endorse a belief they have held almost from day one. The answers any grieving family would want are there for them to accept, but they refuse to accept them. Guede has been convicted. Guede’s forensics were the only forensics found other than Meredith in the murder room. There is no motive for Amanda and Raffaele. There is no workable timeline that involves them. It defies common sense that they would ever commit such a violent crime against a friend. And it certainly defies common sense that they would corroborate with someone like Guede, a stranger to them and someone who comes from the other side of the tracks.

The answer is pretty straight forward, and sadly, all to common. Guede broke in to steal, got surprised by Meredith, and he killed her to keep her from fingering him. All of the evidence supports this conclusion. Why is this not good enough for the Kerchers? Why do they insist on hammering two square pegs into round holes in order to put Amanda and Raffaele into this crime when nothing suggests they were involved?

John [Kercher, Meredith’s father] writes a book, disguised as a tribute to Meredith, but he uses more than half the book in an effort to sell the prosecutions theory. That is NOT a tribute to Meredith and he should be ashamed. That is not allowing the legal system to find the truth, it’s a PR campaign. Their civil attorney, Maresca, is a slime bag of the worst kind. Why a civil attorney continues to have a say in these proceedings remains a mystery to me but it’s clear this guy will say anything to attack Amanda and Raffaele. That the Kerchers do not call their attack dog off or condemn him for his unethical methods is very telling.

I have sympathy for the Kerchers, but if you’re going to campaign for the conviction of two people despite a dire lack of evidence or reason to think they were involved, then at least have the conviction to go public with why you think this way. Address the concerns raised by the defense. Don’t hide behind a book, tabloid articles and a soulless attorney. And THIS is why I’ve lost much respect for the Kerchers and I hardly think it’s harassment to point this out.”

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N.b. Comment from Nell

Thank you Liz for pointing out that Amanda Knox endorses this kind of behaviour while she pretends to care about the Kerchers and Meredith.

The Twitter users Annella, GuilterWatchin and others, who are notorious for their offensive comments, are all being followed by Amanda Knox on Twitter.

It is also important to stress the fact that Amanda Knox’s blog is moderated. Your comment will not be published until she personally approves it. Amanda Knox herself approved comments calling Meredith Kercher’s grieving father a “dirty old man”. She approved comments calling them “greedy” and those who mocked the appearance of poor Meredith’s grave.